On the one hand, rural battered women clearly negotiate their relationships with the legal system in general and the courts in particular. On another level, rural battered women are subject to structural forces over which they have little control. These forces result from masculinist strictures of domestic violence law and from multiple layers of cultural prescriptions and social expectations that are directly related to the rural sociocultural milieu itself. Ways in which rural battered women negotiate the courts are described, and structural themes that tend to undermine women's resistance are examined. Rural women's overall perceptions of judicial performance are considered as they relate to the rudeness of judges, the sentencing of feuding couples to church, the failure of judges to appreciate the complex difficulties faced by battered women, and the social connections between abusers and judges. The author concludes that women do have a say in Kentucky courts and that many women report favorable outcomes, even though Kentucky law treats woman battering as only a misdemeanor offense. He notes, however, that Kentucky law and the courts offer women a limited number of options. 15 notes